German Patent Application No. 10 2005 036 441 (which is not pre-published) refers to a method and a device for operating an internal combustion engine having two cylinder banks, in which, in addition to a first cylinder bank having activated gas exchange of all cylinders, a deactivation of the gas exchange of all cylinders of a second cylinder bank is initiated in at least one operating state of the internal combustion engines, the first and the second cylinder bank each being assigned a separate intake tract.